2013 has started with the news that another fiction enthusiast has decided that they will show their love of my books by giving them away on an illegal download site.
I can't summon up the bile and fury that lots of authors produce when faced with this, but it's not really very nice. The e-book of 'The White Rajah' costs $5.91 on Amazon (£3.66 on amazon.co.uk). Amazon takes a chunk of that and the rest is split between me and JMS Books, who put a lot of work into getting my books out there. All I get from the exercise is a very small amount of money and the satisfaction of seeing how many people have bought my book. Illegal download sites deprive me of both of those things.
This means my week has started with my writing to the site owner pointing out that what they are doing is illegal and that I'd like them to stop.
There are lots of legal ways to get free books. (JMS were giving away copies of 'Cawnpore' only last month.) And I'm happy for people who have bought my books to let their friends read them on their own devices. That usually involves illegal stripping out of DRM and I really don't care. But please don't support illegal download sites and let writers and publishers know if their work is being stolen in this way.
Thanks.
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